Linux desktop split threatens UserLinux

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Mainframes? User software?

You must not have used mainframes much back before PCs became ubiquitous. There provided line editors (which only a sadist or an idiot would liken to word processing), limited strictly internal e-mail, and canned applications. For most users that was it.

For advanced users, it was possible (read not prohibited) to write custom own FORTRAN, PL/I or COBOL programs (or, to be complete, REXX or CLIST scripts), and the lucky few had access to SAS or mainframe APL in which to write customized numeric applications.

PCs became popular because they offerred most departments in which there were no advanced users the ability to use simpler tools to automate some repetitive tasks. For example, using spreadsheets or dBase to generate periodic reports which formerly had to be typed. PCs provided TRUE word processing, report generation tools, and not a lot more in the late 1980s.

I recall being able to customize my own PC back then. I had a keyboard macro package, a cycle and storage wasting screen 'saver', and the MKS Toolkit. And I had an IRMA board for mainframe connections. No LAN. So the only connection with any other computer was the mainframe connection, and PCs no matter how stuffed with a user's own software couldn't threaten the mainframe.

Things changed in the early to mid 1990s when networking became ubiquitous. Then one PC could become a threat to other PCs, the network, and the company as a whole. Employees just aren't allowed to install ANYTHING on their own any more in most large companies, so claiming that uers will demand their favorite apps is complete nonsense. They're no longer allowed to. Their employers now provide PCs with little more than an office suite, e-mail, a browser and access to several canned in-house applications.

Maybe you should wake up and realize that PC configuration has become just as centralized as IT in the old mainframe-only days.

Posted by: hrlngrv   Posted on: 12/22/03 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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